Good eveni....er...morning. It's been a while since I was seen very much in these parts. I hope you are all doing well here in the land of trivia and political discussions.

I've been in the same job for about 9 and half years. Technical support pays the bills (mostly) but lately I was feeling like I had fallen into a canyon-sized rut. I thought about the web design and programming skills that I taught myself back in college. These were things that I greatly enjoyed doing, but had largely neglected since that time. Sensing a potential path out of my employment quagmire, I decided it was time to start taking courses, doing work on the side, and whatever else I could do.

On Friday night, I thought about the thousands of backlogged spam registrations on the Bored, and then I logged on and (inspired in no small part by the aforementioned decision, I'm sure) started to tinker a bit. My girlfriend, who has a bit of web design in her background, mentioned a plug-in that she had used before that seemed to work well. I found it, installed it, and I'm happy to report that after more than 24 hours, not a single spam registrant has gotten through, despite the fact that admins don't have to activate new accounts anymore. You can read more about that in this post.

But I wasn't satisfied, so I came back for more. And stayed all evening. And most of the night. Sleep is for the weak.

If you tried to come to the Bored on Saturday evening, you might have found it offline. I had it out of service for an hour or two, but I got a lot done during that time. The Bored had been running on the same version of its software since, oh, I dunno, 2009? Much like Doc and Marty and their DeLorean, it has now jumped forward to 2015, and will gradually move towards the latest and greatest version as soon as I'm sure that the newest updates won't break anything.

In addition, I cleaned out some database clutter and re-loaded the two base themes that nearly all of the Bored's accounts are set to use, prosilver and subsilver2. Hopefully, things will run a bit smoother, and maybe even seem a bit faster. If you see ANYTHING that suddenly doesn't work, or has gone missing, let me know ASAP.

It's not the same software you remember.....that software is very old, and my hosting provider has updated some background systems that make it nearly impossible to get that old program running again (believe me, I tried.) So I've found something else.

To use it, make sure that you are logged in on the Bored, and then find the Chat link that appears near the top of every page. It will vary a bit, depending on what theme you use, but it's typically next to the FAQ, Search, Members and User Control Panel links:

Clicking on that link gives you another button to press:

Make sure you have Java installed (www.java.com). It is possible to enable the Flash version of the client, if anyone has too much trouble with the Java version. The Mobile client requires that I start paying money to use the Chat client, and that won't be happening.

Once you click the Click to enter Chat! button, you'll be connected:

The buttons below the Chat window are: bold font, italic font, font color, smileys, sounds you send to others in chat, your status, audio/video chat (disabled), and a logoff button. All the usual chat features, like private chats with one person, the ability to create more rooms.....it's all there.

Those of you who like to chat (I know there was a certain group of you that used the old one a lot) give it a try, and let me know how it works for you.

I'm going to leave this thread stuck to the top for a while, so if anyone thinks of any technical issue, or something they would like to see changed, or anything else along those lines, just reply to this post, and I will see what I can do.

Take care, everyone!tubadave

_________________"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." -- Dave Barry

I use Firefox and was able to activate Java, and it worked. I logged in and posted.

No ads, but I did install an ad blocker a couple weeks ago. It's working great so far.

_________________-- In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.-- America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking. -- Wilma Mankiller

I tried to enter chat, and along with not having Java (since Firefox doesn't seem to like it), I also got BOMBARDED with ads just attempting it.... including one pop up.

lb13

I've had no problems with it in either Firefox (which I typically use) or IE. Chrome gave me a pop-up and didn't work, but Chrome and Java don't get along anymore, and I don't use Chrome for much other than looking at Google Docs and Gmail.

For any browser, I strongly, STRONGLY recommend [img=https://adblockplus.org/en/]Adblock Plus[/img]. It will make your whole life so much better.

If Java isn't cooperating, go to Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features and remove absolutely every occurrence of Java you see and then install it fresh from java.com.

Let me know if it's still giving you problems.

_________________"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." -- Dave Barry

I tried to enter chat, and along with not having Java (since Firefox doesn't seem to like it), I also got BOMBARDED with ads just attempting it.... including one pop up.

I thought about this some more. The previous chat client was 100% Flash, and you were able to log into that, so.......I've enabled the Flash option for this one.

Make sure that your Flash player is up-to-date. (Make sure to uncheck the boxes on the Optional Offers, if there are any. You probably don't want the extra crap.) Go to that link and download the update using the browser that you normally use. Firefox will require you to save the update file somewhere and then manually find it and run it.

My previous comments about the ads still apply......I can't recommend AdBlockPlus enough. I've used it with Firefox for years, with great results. The Firefox version is very flexible, allowing you to disable ad blocking for individual sites, if you wish.

_________________"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." -- Dave Barry

I tried to enter chat, and along with not having Java (since Firefox doesn't seem to like it), I also got BOMBARDED with ads just attempting it.... including one pop up.

I thought about this some more. The previous chat client was 100% Flash, and you were able to log into that, so.......I've enabled the Flash option for this one.

Make sure that your Flash player is up-to-date. (Make sure to uncheck the boxes on the Optional Offers, if there are any. You probably don't want the extra crap.) Go to that link and download the update using the browser that you normally use. Firefox will require you to save the update file somewhere and then manually find it and run it.

My previous comments about the ads still apply......I can't recommend AdBlockPlus enough. I've used it with Firefox for years, with great results. The Firefox version is very flexible, allowing you to disable ad blocking for individual sites, if you wish.

I finally got around to trying this (At least the AdBlock... I'd long since given up trying to get Java to work on Firefox again). Hey, it works! I don't understand why the chat software was chock full of ads in the first place, but I actually made it to the chat room this time!

OMG! I can actually use Yahoo mail without having to wait half an hour for its stupid ads to load!

I don't understand why the chat software was chock full of ads in the first place...

The chat software is a paid service from a 3rd party, and I'm using the free version. I'm surprised someone doesn't knock on your door to deliver a stack of ads the size of a NYC phone book every time you click on it.

Glad you got in though. I didn't even realize that the chat room had all those silly ads at first......I've been using AdBlock for so long, I forget about that sort of thing sometimes.....

tubadave

_________________"Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer." -- Dave Barry